The True Bugs 



In food habits the Heteroptera vary greatly. Some of them 

 live strictly on the sap of plants, while others are carnivorous, 

 sucking the blood of other insects, and even the blood of vertebrate 

 animals, while still others seem to feed indifferently upon plants 

 and animals. Still others seem to require no other nourishment 

 than the moisture of decaying wood and fungi. Many forms are 

 truly aquatic, others travel about with ease upon the surface, 

 while others seem confined to the shores of streams and ponds 

 and to the sea beach. The majority, however, live inland under 

 the most diverse conditions on trees, plants and shrubs. 



The peculiar odor possessed by many of the true bugs is by 

 no means characteristic of all. The disagreeable and character- 

 istic odor of the bed-bug is approximated by that of the chinch- 

 bug of western wheatfields and by certain Pentatomids. Others 

 smell like very ripe or over-ripe fruit, especially pears, while in 

 some Coreidae the odor is aromatic and in others it is spicy like 

 cinnamon. This odor is that of a very volatile oil which is 

 secreted, as a method of defense, from certain specialized glands 

 situated in different parts of the body. 



It will especially be noticed that there is very much yet to 

 be learned about the individual life histories of the true bugs. 

 In very few of the families has a single species been studied with 

 sufficient care to enable the writer to give a good typical life 

 history. There is probably no one of the great groups of insects 

 which offers so good an opportunity for the collector, the system- 

 atic worker, or the true student of nature who wishes to learn 

 how insects live, to learn so many original and absolutely novel 

 facts as in collecting and studying the Heteroptera. For many 

 years Professor P. R. Uhler has worked practically alone in this 

 country on this easily collected, easily preserved and easily 

 studied group, and although Professor H. E. Summers, and Mr. 

 O. Heidemann have recently taken up this interesting study, an 

 enormous field is open for scores of workers. 



TABLE OF FAMILIES* 



Antennae shorter than the head and nearly or quite concealed 

 in a cavity beneath the eyes i 



* For the greater part of this table, which, however, has been rearranged, the 

 writer is indebted to H. E. Summers' Bull. 3, Vol. iv, Agric. Expt. Station of the 

 UniT. Tenn., 1891. 



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